Let’s take a quick look through Our Lady’s apparitions and their messages: pray, pray… pray again.. repent... oh, here’s something about penance, pray again, some penance, build a chapel here, go there, show this sign to others… back to prayer and penance for the conversion of sinners… Nope, nothing about scrolling on our phones. Okay, most of the apparitions really seem to be before the age of cell phones and the internet; but even before then, there were newspapers, radio, movies, television. St. Jean Marie Vianney, who overlapped some time with St. Bernadette Soubirous in France, famously spoke against dance halls. He wasn't necessarily against the movement of bodies, per se, but because of the reason people went there, which often ended up in avoiding Church on Sundays and holy days of obligation. Plus, of course, the temptations from lust (which many people went there to indulge in – the dance halls were a bit like browsing through some of the modern dating apps on your phone). And, inevitably when a lot of people get together like that, you end with with fighting and jealousy, and slander, rumor mongering, and just talking bad about others. It was a bit like the comments section on many websites and social media. Yes, there is nothing new under the sun, as Ecclesiastes so pointedly reminds us (Ecc 1:9b). Human nature is human nature is human nature, from pre-history until the end of all human history.

So, when St. Thomas Aquinas and other spiritual masters condemn curiosity, they are condemning more this than seeking after knowledge. We are made, by God, to seek the true and the good — so that in itself cannot be evil.

And curiosity, as it is understood in current usage, is not necessarily bad. Curiosity (or more accurately, perhaps, wonder) has led to many a scientific marvel or cure. God gave us two wings, faith and reason, or as Pope St. John Paul II once wrote, “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves” (Fides et Ratio, preamble). Curiosity, properly speaking as a vice, is when it leads us away from the good and the true. It is a kind of intellectual sloth; an avoidance of the greater or actual good in favor of some lesser good or evil, when we have a duty to study and learn the good. St. Thomas Aquinas, in the articles on curiosity (Summa Theologiae, IIa IIae, q. 167) refers to St. Jerome, who condemned a priest who spent an excess of time “reading stage plays, and singing the love songs of pastoral idylls,” the secular entertainment of their day, it seems. At best, the priests were avoiding the study of Scripture and wisdom, that they might help save souls, and at worst, they were deliberately and habitually seeking entertainment that would lead to sin. It is, of course, forbidden to seek knowledge through evil in any way. The Church Fathers speak of seeking knowledge of the future through demons, but in our day, they may as well preach furiously against those who seek knowledge through the purposeful destruction of human embryos and the unborn to gain knowledge, for example.

Next, he speaks of trying to know the truth about creatures, without due regard for the true and proper end of such knowledge, that is, without reference to the Creator. Science and wonder can lead to the Creator God, but losing oneself only to remain in the smallness of the creature means losing sight of the infinite goodness of the Creator.

Finally, he speaks of seeking knowledge beyond our own capacity and intelligence, and engaging in idle speculations that lead us away from God. A little knowledge about anything can be a truly dangerous thing, if it is used for the wrong purposes. Even pursuing a Doctorate in some kind of sacred science can lead us away from God, if our purpose is to delight in being called “Doctor” rather than in helping others, whether body or soul.

In the second article on curiosity, St. Thomas Aquinas engages with the idea of seeking knowledge of the things of the flesh, that is, seeking to know how “something feels,” if we know that a particular experiential knowledge can be sinful. A modern example might be experimenting with illicit drugs or pornography. This is where many a young person ends up losing himself. Here, they wish to engage in their curiosity, not in order to fall into a trap or vice, but in order to “know,” or at least, that’s what many of us tell ourselves.

The opposite virtue to the vice of curiosity is not ignorance, however, but studiousness, that is, engaging in study and learning for the sake of the good and the true, and above all, for the One who created all things. This is one reason why good spiritual reading has been so highly recommended by the saints throughout the ages. We should always be engaged, in some way, with Scripture, saintly wisdom, or even secular knowledge, especially if it helps us or others. A little purely pleasure reading is not in itself bad, either. We all need a little rest and relaxation, but never let that be an excuse to ignore the things of God and love of God and neighbor.

So brothers and sisters, then, let us use the time that God has given us to do good, to be good, and to seek the good!

This is the way of the saints.